Cyprus - Peace seems to return in hotel sector with new agreement - July 30, 2010https://wageindicator.org/labour-laws/collective-bargaining/2010/news-items/cyprus-peace-seems-to-return-in-hotel-sector-with-new-agreement-july-30-2010https://wageindicator.org/@@site-logo/wageindicator.png

Cyprus - Peace seems to return in hotel sector with new agreement - July 30, 2010

On 1 June 2010, after 18 months of hard bargaining, the unions representing 16,000 hotel workers, the Federation of Hotel Industry Employees (ΟUXEB) and the Union of Hotel and Recreational Establishment Employees (SYXKA), agreed to accept a proposal by government mediators to renew their collective agreement. The Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance believed that the proposal, effective retrospectively from January 2009 to December 2011, balanced the various demands and needs of both sides of industry. The unions said they made only moderate pay demands because of the effects of the global financial crisis. No pay rises were envisaged for the first year apart from a Euro 150 lump sum on 31 December 2010. For the next two years, marginal increases in wages will be granted, with both sides’ contributions to the health fund not exceeding 1.5% or the rate of average productivity over the past three years. However, the Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprises (STEK) rejected the mediation proposal without even examining it, whereas the larger PASYXE hotel employers’ association voiced concerns about the content of the agreement. In this situation, the unions made it clear they could not rule out the possibility of industrial action. Finally, by the end of July PASYXE said to accept the mediation proposal despite the difficult situation it was facing due to ailing tourism, and industrial peace seems to have returned in the hotel sector.